Everything in the cloud. That's the idea behind the iCloud, the new storage service based on the Internet that has long been awaited by owners of Apple devices. In this Monday, Steve Jobs took the stage at the Moscone Center and sacramented the new release of MobileMe, now with new name and new features.
iCloud: 5 GB of free storage
To be fair, MobileMe left only the history, because the applications integrated into iCloud were built entirely from scratch, according to Jobs. They will work with any Apple device to receive the IOS 5. Plus, you have integration with Mac OS and Windows, though Apple has not provided many details about it.
To trigger the iCloud, simply enter the username and password of the account in Apple device, be it an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Thereafter, the device files and documents will be sent to the cloud maintained by Apple. No need for adjustments or settings, Steve Jobs assured during the presentation.
Documents
The iCloud will work with documents thanks to which Apple calls "documents in the cloud." When creating a new text file in Pages, for example, it is automatically replicated on all devices that have Pages available. After editing the file, it is sent to the cloud without any user intervention. Apple's desire is that the experience of using the cloud is completely transparent.
Steve Jobs said during the presentation that iCloud to particular documents is a victory for him, who has been trying to "eliminate" the file system ten years ago. In practice, what he means is that users no longer need to navigate through folders and more folders to find a document. Now just open the application and see it in the listing, not important which device it is.
Apple has confirmed that versions of Pages, Keynote and Numbers released for iPhone and iPod Touch last week already have integration with iCloud. The feature will be activated only when the IOS device is installed in May.
Photos
In addition to documents, iCloud provides synchronization of photos between various devices. When taking a picture on the iPhone, it will automatically be sent to the cloud and then is downloaded to the IPAD and iPod Touch. According to Apple, this operation is very simple and without choking. After a few seconds the image is captured, she is already replicated in the devices (depending on the connection of course).
The devices running IOS will always store the latest 1000 photos, even for the sake of space. There will be no storage limit for the versions of the images will be kept on your computer, be it running Windows or Mac OS.
Apple also announced the Photo Stream, which will keep the 30 most recent photos taken with the unit and do not in any albums. In a way, the company is forcing users to put all the photos you want to keep to himself in an album, which will be reflected even in iPhoto for Mac
Music
ITunes has gained new features to run in the cloud. The songs purchased through Apple's online store will be sent to all devices without additional cost to the user. So, when you download a new song on the iPod Touch, it can be downloaded (this time automatically) the iPad.
There are restrictions regarding the songs that were not downloaded by iTunes. Apple offers in these cases, iTunes Match, which scans the music library from the consumer and, after finding songs that did not come from iTunes, do a search in the 18 million files to see if the music exists out there. If one exists, the old file will be replaced by a new, high-quality AAC 256 kbps without DRM. If the song does not exist in iTunes, then yes the file upload will be done.
ITunes Match will cost $ 25 annually. It can be seen as an amnesty for those who downloaded pirated music throughout life. Now, these songs can be converted into legalized songs for less than 50 reais per year (lower value than the purchase of two traditional albums).
Applications
As might be expected, iCloud be deeply integrated with IOS 5. It will also back up applications, as well as the settings for these applications. Gone is the time to lose points a game, for example. Now, to finish a game, these points will be replicated on all devices running IOS.
Not only that synchronization applications, will be responsible for backup iCloud the phones themselves. Once a day, adjustments and settings are sent to the cloud. The concern with the consumption of the franchise data only decreases because this great backup is done only when the unit is connected to a Wi-Fi No 3G for this, since.
Price
The iCloud will not cost anything. He provides 5 GB of storage for documents. Apple has not revealed what will be designed to store pictures and music. The company also did not say how the videos are captured with devices running IOS.
As the SOI 5, iCloud is scheduled for September 2011.
Datacenter
To keep iCloud running, Apple has just opened a data center with the very latest in technology and environmentally sustainable architecture and engineering. Its cost is estimated at $ 1 billion.
